


Longest Night of the Year

by SerStolas



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Destroy Ending, F/M, Pagan Holidays, Recovery, Winter Solstice, probable medical inaccuracies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28373343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: The Reapers were destroyed, the Normandy SR2 and her crew survived and made it back to Earth.  The Milky Way is starting to recover.  It would make Garrus smile, if not for the fact that the most important person in his universe is still laying in a coma in a hospital bed months after their victory over the Reapers, and they don't know if she will ever wake up.  Tonight is Winter Solstice on Earth, the longest night of the year, and Garrus is keeping vigil as he has done so many nights before.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Longest Night of the Year

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Mass Effect, I'm just playing with their toys. 
> 
> Fair warning, my Shepard in this is pagan, I kept it a bit generic in the fic belief wise.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr @SerStolas

The steady beeping of medical equipment and machines filled the air. Outside the sun had set, darkness and creeping over the sprawling hospital campus and the city slowly being rebuilt beyond. It had been a few months short of a year since the Victory over the Reapers, as most creatures had dubbed it. Much of the past several months had been people picking up the pieces, trying to find and help survivors, and figure out what to do in the aftermath of the swath of destruction the Reapers had cut across the galaxy. Entire cities had been wiped out of existence, and many of the survivors huddled in the remains of the cities that had survived with any portion of the city intact. It would be years if not decades before the Milky Way really recovered from the Reapers. But there were survivors, species had survived, and there was a way forward.

Garrus heard those words repeated by so many people in the past few months. He didn't blame them. Everyone was clinging to whatever comfort or good they could find given the destruction and the staggering amount of death they'd all endured. When the Normandy had finally gotten back into contact with the Council and the Alliance after being thrown off course and spent months limping back to Earth, the fact that there were survivors on Earth and the Reapers had been destroyed had made everyone on the Normandy cheer in relief. The news that their Commander though, the news that His Shepard was missing and presumed dead, had taken much of the heart out of the whole crew.

He had to hand it to Miranda and Liara and their determination to find out what happened to Shepard, even if it was just to recover her remains. When they'd finally found her eight months after the Reapers destruction (the sheer amount of unidentified people, both alive and in hospitals and remains made Garrus shutter even now), he'd been hopeful, then pained to discover that while Shepard was still "alive," she was in a coma, and the doctors at the remote hospital she'd been taken to when she was found weren't sure if she would wake up at all. A few people had debated taking her off the machines, but one of the doctors had fought it, saying if they could keep one more soldier alive, they would. They'd only been lucky enough to have enough equipment to dedicate to Shepard because they'd been remote. 

That told Garrus just how far Shepard had been thrown during the destruction of the Citadel. Even Miranda, who had rebuilt Shepard, was shocked she was still alive.

At Hackett's order, Shepard had been moved to a larger facility. The Admiral wasn't taking any chances with the Hero of the Citadel and frankly, the entire Galaxy. Garrus wasn't sure what strings (or maybe hacking) Liara and Miranda had engaged in, but when it came to the hospital's attention that Garrus Vakarian was listed as Commander Shepard's next of kin, he was readily given access to visit her whenever he could.

Much of his time since landing back on Earth had been spent coordinating relief efforts with the Turians. Every planet in the galaxy was hurting due to the Reapers' destruction, and right now it was absolutely crucial that the different species in Citadel space worked together towards recovery. 

Tonight though, as many nights in the past, he kept vigil over Shepard. Tonight marked the change of seasons from autumn to winter in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. He knew that humans celebrated many holidays this time of year, but this particular one had always been special to Shepard. She called it Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, a shift from one season to another when the harvest was over, and the cold of winter and waiting for the warmth of spring to return began, and the death and rebirth of the sun. Garrus had observed her celebrating this holiday during their time on the first Normandy. She'd joined the rest of the humans in the crew celebrating Christmas and other holidays, but Yule she'd celebrated quietly by herself. 

With James's help, Garrus had managed to procure a battery powered candle that he'd turned on as the sun set and set it on the table beside Shepard's hospital bed. Most other lights in the room were off to help conserve electricity, though he could see low light on in the hall outside Shepard's room where nurses and doctors scurried about on their own errands. The nurses came in on their hourly rounds to check on Shepard and would nod to him as they did, observing him as he sat beside his girlfriend's bed, holding a tablet in between his talons and quietly reading to her.

Over the past few months, Garrus had read a couple of books aloud to Shepard, even if he knew she couldn't respond, he hoped that she might hear him, and someday come back to him.

Tonight he was reading The Fellowship of the Rings by a J.R.R. Tolkien. Years before Shepard had told him her favorite book was the Hobbit. He'd already read that one aloud, and when James found out about that, he'd suggested Garrus read this book as well. Garrus admitted he found himself a little amused by the stories woven by this human author centuries before. The book seemed particularly appropriate tonight, as it spoke of a darkness encroaching upon the world, and those that journeyed to fight against that darkness. It reminded him just a little of the task that Shepard had undertaken, leaving Earth when the Reapers attacked and traveling the galaxy to make alliances and find help to fight that evil and darkness that had threatened to destroy them all.

"Did you ever feel like Frodo?" Garrus asked Shepard aloud as he looked up from the tablet, regarding her pale face by the light of the electric candle. "You told me about the maiden voyage of the Normandy, how it was supposed to be a shakedown, and but then the Geth attacked and you recovered the Beacon. That Beacon kind of started it all, didn't it? Just like the Ring Bilbo left Frodo."

He sighed and looked at the clock display on the wall. 03:23 hours. He'd been reading to Shepard for a few hours, accompanied by the beeping of the machines and the occasional interruption of the nurses on their rounds. "I wish you would wake up when the sun rises. It's the longest night of the year here on Earth, but it's been such a long night since they found you, knowing that you're alive but barely hanging on, not knowing if you'll ever come back to me. I miss you, Morgan." 

Still balancing the tablet in one hand, Garrus reached out his other and curled Shepard's fingers around his talons, feeling the warmth of her skin sinking into his. He missed her snark, her clever mind, and her tenacity. That she had survived the fall from the Citadel was nothing short of a miracle, as some of the humans put it, but if she never woke up, was it really survival? "Is it too much to ask that you come back?" Garrus asked, "The way that you say the sun comes back every Solstice?" He sighed as he shifted the tablet in his hand and began reading to her again. 

He read on, glancing occasionally at the time piece on the wall as he read, watching the hours flick by as he sat through his vigil with his love. He wanted her to wake up, and some part of him refused to think that she never would. Shepard had told him there was no Shepard without Vakarian, but he refused to accept a world where there was a Vakarian without a Shepard.

Finally, first rays of the morning sun began to filter in through the room window, and Garrus set the tablet aside to watch wearily as the sun rose over the horizon and began to bathe the cold, snow covered city outside with its warmth. The longest night of the year was over, and as with so many other things, the sun had returned. He closed his eyes for a few moments against the light.

He felt the fingers around his talons tighten. His eyes flew open, and as the grasp on his talons tightened even more, gray eyes stared into blue.

"Shepard," he whispered.

The occupant of the hospital bed gave him a pained, crooked grin. "Hello Garrus."

At that smile the darkness in Garrus's heart fled. "Morgan Shepard, don't you ever do that to me again," he told her as he heard the machine beeps alert the nurses, and he leaned over and kissed her hand.

Morgan Shepard smiled a bit more at him. "There's no Shepard without Vakarian, and you asked me to come back."

He shifted to lean forward and kiss her forehead. " It's not just no Shepard without Vakarian, my love. There's no Vakarian without Shepard either."

She squeezed his talons again before he had to pull back and let the nurses fuss over her. He glanced out at the rising sun and felt more than just hope, he felt relief, for the first time in a long time.


End file.
